Electoral commission approves new 'Sex Party'

The electoral commission has officially approved the registration of the Australian Sex Party, ruling the new political party's name is not obscene.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) registered the new party as a legitimate political group over the weekend, with a membership of about 3,000.

A sex shop owner in Townsville in north Queensland, Colin Edwards, has been working on the creation of the party for almost a year.

Mr Edwards, who is also vice-president of the Eros Association - Australia's national adult retail and entertainment association - hopes the new party will provide voters with a viable alternative.

"State and national party presidents are actually quite fearful at the moment about the fact that the Australian Sex Party in its first six months of operation had just under 3,000 members and we haven't even launched in New South Wales yet," he said.

Mr Edwards says he may run as a Senate candidate for the Sex Party.

"For a long time Australians have had to put up with the moral right, the religious belt, those people that want to dictate their morals to Australians and bash us over the heads with them and they've got away with this for far too long," he said.

"Family First, One Nation - these are organisations that expect all Australians to live their way."

But a political academic believes the Australian Sex Party will struggle to win seats in the next federal election.

Political scientist Professor Geoff Cockfield says it is hard to know exactly what the party stands for.

He dismisses claims by the party it will be a force in Australian politics.

Professor Cockfield says the party is based on the industry lobby group Eros and has little substance beyond that.

"Where is the obvious inhibitions to our sexual freedom that are claimed in this party's accompanying material and what is it that they're actually asking for legislatively?" he said.

"It seems to me to be tilting at windmills really.

"It comes from an industry lobby group - there is particular commercial orientation that would be going on here and I would imagine that a lot of the lobbying would be around creating the conditions that would allow the adult particularly film industry to flourish."